Mahindra Working on New Platforms; Verito Vibe Not Doing Well!

Mahindra has been facing a rough patch for quite some time now. The deregulation of diesel prices has hit their sales prospects as most of their vehicles are diesel-powered. Their stranglehold over the utility vehicle space is a thing of the past, and the company is at stress.

Mahindra’s S101 is one of the many upcoming models from Mahindra. Click pic for details. Pic Credit: Motor Vikatan

However, the humble, rugged Scorpio has managed to bring the Duster to its knees for the second consecutive month. Economic Times says that M&M has sold over 3,356 units of Scorpio in August of 2013 against 2,967 units of Duster. In July, Scorpio outsold Duster by over 150 units with sales of 3,256 units versus Duster’s 3,089 units. For the period January-July 2013, Renault’s Duster sales aggregated to 36,545 units against Scorpio’s 32,867 units.

Mahindra has been emboldened by this happening, and they are looking forward to their new launches. Here’s a listing, in the probable order of unveiling :

We had talked about it in detail sometime back; you can have a look at it here.

However, a few things remain where Mahindra could face issues. The foremost of them has been the lackluster response received by their hatchback Verito Vibe as also admitted by Mr Pawan Goenka, President Automotive Farm and Equipments. The company feels it has the potential to be a chartbuster in its segment. However, it has been undone by the new launches in its segment.

Another bottleneck has been the lack of technical superiorty, as well as the absence of quality in the fit and finish of their vehicle interiors. The vehicles come at lower price points, but are lagging behind as compared to others in the above mentioned segments. Hopefully, Mahindra’s partnership with Ssangyong could put an end to this drought.

Let us wait and watch how the times ahead pan out for the Indian tractor-to-UV manufacturer!!